The winds of change...

A 'No' uttered from the deepest
conviction is better than a 'Yes'
merely uttered to please,
or worse, to avoid trouble. 

I just spent a few days working out a new menu to put up on the cupcakesforcambodia.org site. It was supposed to be a Valentine's/Spring menu, but since I procrastinated St. Valentine's Day slipped through the cracks...I still have some heart shaped cookies in the fridge though (un-iced of course because as I stated I am awful at procrastination).

The point is, there comes a time when change is necessary.

You hear a lot about change...quotes, speeches, how it is necessary, how you must accept it. How people won't except it, how they don't like change. How change is good, how change can be bad, how you create it, how you can BE the change. Quite frankly, it is tossed around so much we have a tendency to gloss over it and treat it as the overused word and concept that it is.

But when I think about how extraordinary and profound change is....it really is quite something.

And I can feel change....

I feel the winds of change blowing and moving right now. In my life and all around me.

inspired by the song "Colors of the Wind" in Pocahontas...I have always loved it because she looks as if she truly feels the wind and the change her people were about to experience

I don't mean in some overarching manor, because there are some large changes taking place. I mean I can feel a quiet change, an under-tide slowly rearranging, gently whispering and moving. The type of change that slowly manifests and tenderly sneaks up on you.

So many people get caught up in change. They get stuck in awful cliches of change, spouting slogans and touting it proudly. The change many people experience is merely themselves being swept away with the masses, conforming to and accepting the change fed and dictated to them by some great unknown source. Some source that propagates change but remains nameless and faceless. This change is the useless ineffectual change that requires no skill and an absence of mind to be apart of. I like to pass on this change.

I get excited when change happens quietly within you. I think quality change is when you set the foundation and parameters for it. When you begin a change by directing it and you start within yourself. It needn't be announced to the world and it truly requires time, focus and skill to achieve. This is the the type of change that has led to world revolutions. It is driven by conviction, paid for in blood, and believed in the heart.

Cautious, careful people, always casting 
about to preserve their 
reputations...can never effect a reform. 

Great leaders have made an eternal impact with this change. And while it is their rich words often misquoted by those who simply jumped on the band wagon without really understanding, that doesn't matter. What really matters is the conviction they felt in their heart which lead to positive forward action.

There is nothing like returning to a place
that remains unchanged to find the ways in
which you yourself have altered. 

And of course there is opposition. Sometimes no one follows, no one quotes you and greatness appears to allude you. But if you really know in your inner man that you are acting out true conviction, that you are igniting a revolution, then the actions of every other man matter not. Because in the end truth is abstract and concrete. It is not democratic, it does not need a majority vote to pass for truth. It can be hated by everyone but is remains unstained; it remains truth.

When I think of this kind of revolutionary truth I think of men like Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela, Mahatmas Gandhi and women like Susan B. Anthony and Joan of Arc.

They had convictions. They sparked revolution based on these convictions...they did not merely thrive off their frustrations or the pressures of others but really knew that they carried a truth within them that they must act upon.

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. 

Regardless of imprisonment, beatings, burning, lies and gossip, murder, assassination, slander, and torture, whether it was of the mind or body, they remained steadfast and faithful. This was because they had a hope to anchor their soul. They had a dream they wished to carry into this realm of reality.

In an age where authentic truth and conviction are rare to say the least, I admire these qualities in the forefathers of the fight for justice and truth. I find that if they were capable of inciting change in entire nations and revolutions across this entire world, that I too can become the initiator for change by living out truth also.

My name need not be recorded, my actions may not ever be written in books or read by generations in years to come. But greatness isn't defined by how widespread one's actions are or how famous they become. True greatness is how successful you were at living the truth and illuminating it for others by your actions in this life.

One life is all we have
and we live it as we believe in living it.
But to sacrifice what you are and to live without belief, t
hat is a fate more terrible than dying. 

The truth that I seek to live out is one in which I carry serious conviction. I strive to base my entire life upon it. It is an ancient truth which transcends time, but one which is ever relevant.

And that Truth is the Word of God.

Be blessed :)